The thread for birds and birding

[Proud2baLaker]

I went on a birding hike yesterday and had a pretty good day overall. While I did not take a ton of pictures, I did see a fair number of cool birds. I also heard 2 birds that I could not find visually. One I have never seen so that was a big bummer. The other, I have seen but have yet to get pictures.

While driving away, I went through an area that has some different habitat looking for more desert/sage brush type birds. Then, after stopping to identify a different bird, I saw one I had been searching for again and again after seeing it 5 years ago. The Loggerhead Shrike.

Lets skip right to the coolest fact of these birds. They are sometimes referred to as The Butcherbird. Shrikes will take prey as large as themselves including insects, reptiles, small mammals and other birds. The Loggerhead clocks in at 7-9 inches long so they can take some large prey. Smaller insects they will eat right away. Other large prey, they will impale on thorns and/or barb wire to make tearing it apart easier. This also allows them to create a cache of a food supply and there is some speculation that this behavior may also help to identify territory, or maybe attract a mate. They have also learned to impale potentially noxious prey and wait for a few days for the poisons to break down before eating.

They can be found through much of the United States with the northern US mostly being only during the breeding season. Typically will find them in more open habitat like fields or scrub land. Though they can be found in some heavily wooded areas that contain large openings in areas. Numbers have dropped sharply in the last 50 years or so especially in the northeast and upper midwest.

I did not get a ton of photos. But the bird was only maybe 20 feet from me perched on a barb wire fence so I was able to get a couple of fairly good quality photos.

 

[Proud2baLaker]

Going with a fairly common bird this week: The Mourning Dove

Super frequent at feeders (platform style) or on the ground below them, Mourning doves can be found in pretty much every type of habitat across the entire lower 48, including deserts (where they have the ability to tolerate brackish, high salinity water). They will gorge out on seed as much as they can, storing it in a crop and then flying off to someplace safe to digest. One dove apparently was found with over 17,000 bluegrass seeds in it's crop. They eat 12-20% of their body weight per day.

Mourning doves are one of the most hunted game birds in the US, with a harvest of more than 20 million per year, but thankfully, the bird remains abundant anyway with an estimated sustained population of 350 million.

Their "sad" cooing calls are probably one of the most recognizable calls in the bird world (in the US at least) and is what gives them their name "Mourning". Though of course, many people incorrectly refer to them as "morning" doves since they are most commonly heard in the early hours of the day. They hold a lot of symbolism for many people representing a wide range of things from: peace, hope, love, messages from god, calm, etc. For some reason, when I take photos of them, I always see them as such an innocent things. I would certainly say they can be a calming presence.

These photos have come at different times over the years. Some have been used as backgrounds on my computer. The photo with the Northern Flicker was a surprise actually as I was more focused on the flicker and didn't even notice the dove to the left.

 

[Proud2baLaker]

One of my favorite birds to get photos of, despite only having a few good ones, is the Western Kingbird.

Common in open areas from the plains westward to the Pacific during the breeding, they are seen perched on wires, utility poles, and trees on the edges of open fields where they search for insects to eat on the fly. They can be sometimes seen on the east coast during the fall migration as some do overwinter in the southern tip of Florida. They are often aggressive and will chase and "scold" other kingbirds in their area but also raptors like the red-tailed hawk and American kestrel. One behavior during this scolding will be to raise their crimson feathers on their head which are normally hidden under a gray crown (I have yet to see these feathers myself). They have actually been expanding their range more and more as we create fields for agriculture and other uses. During their breeding season, they will defend a large territory at first. But as the incubation of their eggs goes on, they defend a smaller and smaller area, eventually only worrying about the tree they are nesting in, and not much else.

These are among my favorites due to their color and stature. I love the dark black beak blending into the gray head and then down into the yellow. In good light, it is quite a sight.

The first picture came at the end of a day of birding (I think I posted this long ago when pictures didn't stay up). I was driving out of the area and saw this one perched on a log fence. I rolled down the passenger window and snapped some photos while he cooperated nicely. I like this pic so much I use it as the background on a debit card and a friend painted a little picture copy for me. The 2nd came at one of the fish farms my company operates. It has been a decent birding spot as it sits along a river and has some open field areas around that I have access to.

 

[Proud2baLaker]

Slow day work. Time for a new bird. I actually shared some pics back in 2022 but they are now gone of course. Since I had shared before, I will copy and paste the info I did last time:

The Black-headed Grosbeak. Native from the western plains, through the Rockies and to the Pacific coast during the breeding season and overwintering in Mexico. The striking orange on their bodies is striking against the black of the head. Both male and females will sing and both will also incubate eggs about equally. Traits not terribly common in a lot of song birds. They are one of the few birds that can eat Monarch butterflies. However, they have been observed eating them in roughly 8-day cycles, presumably to prevent and eliminate any potential buildup of toxins. During the migration I managed to finally attract some to my feeders this past spring. They appeared to mainly feed on sunflower but I think some went after the millet/milo seed as well.

This little fact from allaboutbirds.com is neat too:

• The Black-headed Grosbeak's scientific names are both well-suited. Its species name, melanocephalus, means "black-headed.” And its genus name, Pheucticus, refers either to the Greek pheuticus for "shy" or phycticus meaning "painted with cosmetics," fitting for a showy bird that forages in dense foliage.

This time I have the same 2 pictures I shared in 2022 but the 3rd was from just a few weeks ago. All of them are males.

 

[Proud2baLaker]

With the world going to hell around us, birds are one of the few things that still make me happy.

Going with a fun little falcon this time around: American Kestrel.

They are super widespread through the Western Hemisphere with year-round populations through much of the US, Caribbean, and South America. The northern Plains states, Canada, and interior Alaska will see them during the breeding season, and some areas of the Gulf of Mexico coast down to the Yucatan are wintering grounds. In open farmland, they are super common on fence posts and wire and on utility poles. Apparently it is common for them to be seen during night games at some open stadiums as the lights will attract moths, a popular food item for Kestrels, and they will dart around catching them on the wing.

Kestrels can see in ultraviolet light which allows them to see the urine trails of voles, another common prey. They also have the ability to "hover", something you may have seen featured on some nature programs. They will face into the wind and match their forward speed to the wind so they can remain in the same spot scanning the ground below for prey.

These photos came at various times. The first one (a female), I hadn't even realized it had some prey. I love the way it was looking in my direction as if I would have wanted to steal that mouse (or whatever it is). But with the 2nd (a male) I actually watched it catch that moth. The third is another female and is the most recent photo I have from earlier this spring.

 

[state of hockey]

There was a Rally Kestrel at Target Field some years ago. It was fun watching it swoop around getting moths.

This is probably the best picture someone grabbed of it. Perched on a foul pole moth in its grasp.

 

[Proud2baLaker]

There was a Rally Kestrel at Target Field some years ago. It was fun watching it swoop around getting moths.

This is probably the best picture someone grabbed of it. Perched on a foul pole moth in its grasp.

My facts I list come from All About Bird, the website for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. One thing they mentioned on that fun fact is that they are sometimes featured in highlight clips on TV.

 

[Proud2baLaker]

I have a hummingbird feeder outside my office at work and this summer has been especially active. I slowly began getting them more used to me as I would stand next to the feeder for a little bit each time I filled. They quickly got used to my presence to where I could hold onto the feeder and eventually place my hand nearby. They could come in and feed and perch and check me out with no problems. On July 5, I bought this little hummingbird feeder that is a ring you wear on your finger. I started wearing it while I stood there with my hand next to the feeder. They looked at it a lot and by July 11, I had one just start to take a chance and stick its beak in to feed but another chased it away. Today, I went out and tried again. It took maybe 10 minutes of them coming and going. But I finally had one feed from it while I was wearing it! It was so awesome. I did get video (I have several videos of them feeding with me standing there) and managed to extract a still from it. I will add the video if I can figure that out.